What do the numbers say about the meat imports from Namibia?

When a sheep farmer in the Northern Cape says that livestock farming, especially sheep farming, can no longer be profitable, it makes one sit up. His statement may be based on the reality of input costs on the one hand and the price sheep farmers have to settle for on the other. If this is so, then the sums do not add up at all and it will not take long before many sheep farmers will have to leave the bus. This is a shocking statement, but it has already been expressed by a few sheep producers. If you talk to a few of them, you will soon find out that they are unhappy about the prices that climbed from R65/kg to R95/kg from 2019 to 2022, but then fell back to R85/kg. It is also the case that input costs are not going to drop and although all kinds of plans are being made to farm more scientifically and develop markets, no one seems to have advice for these practical problems. One such problem situation that producers have hot under the collar is the import of red meat from ...